1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a vehicular, hands-free telephone system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of operating a hands-free, Bluetooth™ enabled telephone system for a vehicle.
2. Background Art
A conventional hands-free telephone system for a vehicle enables an operator of the vehicle such as the driver to talk on a telephone such as a cell phone while using both hands for driving the vehicle during a call. Typically, the driver manually uses keys on the cell phone to access functions, other than when answering a phone call, making a phone call, or re-dialing a recently dialed number. Conventional hands-free telephone systems employ a voice recognition module which enables the driver to answer and make phone calls and re-dial numbers using voice commands. As such, the advantages of conventional hands-free telephone systems for vehicles are added convenience and safety.
Certain vehicular, hands-free telephone systems employ Bluetooth™ communications technology. Such systems include a vehicle appliance which is typically configured as part of the operating panel of the vehicle. The vehicle appliance includes a Bluetooth™ communications module for wirelessly communicating with a Bluetooth™ enabled cell phone located somewhere in the vehicle. The vehicle appliance further includes a voice recognition module and other input interfaces such as keypads and buttons for receiving voice commands and other input commands from the driver regarding the use of the cell phone. The vehicle appliance is further connected to the vehicle electrical bus architecture in order to output verbal and display information through the vehicle's radio speakers and display screens.
A problem with the way in which a conventional hands-free telephone system enables the driver to control the telephone system using voice commands is that the driver may only issue one voice command at a time. For example, to dial a telephone number, a conventional hands-free telephone system is configured such that the driver says the voice command “dial.” The telephone system then goes into a dialing mode and verbally outputs something to the effect of “name or number please.” The driver then says a second voice command which may contain the number such as “818 555-1212.” The telephone system then causes the cell phone to dial that telephone number to make the call.
Alternatively, the driver may say a second voice command containing the name such as “John.” If the cell phone has one stored telephone number for “John”, then the telephone system causes the cell phone to dial John's telephone number to make the call. If the cell phone has more than one stored telephone number for “John” such as work and home telephone numbers, then the telephone system verbally outputs something to the effect of “work or home.” The driver then says a third voice command such as “home.” The telephone system then causes the cell phone to dial John's home telephone number to make the call.
As such, the telephone system is configured such that the driver can only state one voice command at a time. It would be desirable if the telephone system were configured such that the driver could state two or more voice commands at a time. For example, it would be desirable if the driver could say the two voice commands “Dial John” at once without interruption by the telephone system and then have the telephone system cause the cell phone to dial the stored telephone number for John to make the call. Likewise, it would be desirable if the driver could say the three voice commands “Dial John at home” at once and then have the telephone system to cause the cell phone to dial John's home telephone number to make the call. It would be further desirable if the ability for the driver to issue multiple voice commands at once is also available when accessing other cell phone functions such as pairing the cell phone with the Bluetooth™ communications module.
In order to use cell phones with a Bluetooth™ enabled hands-free telephone system, the cell phones need to be associated with the Bluetooth™ communications module through a process called “pairing.” The pairing process entails the driver issuing voice commands in response to verbal interrogatories from the telephone system in order to pair cell phones and other Bluetooth™ enabled devices with the Bluetooth™ communications module. The typical pairing process is confusing to the driver. It would be desirable if the pairing process was conducted in a driver friendly manner.
Bluetooth™ enabled hands-free telephone systems are configured to enable the driver to say a voice command having a password or account information (usually a numeric sequence) for communication from the driver to a voice automated menu-driven system such as voice mail systems and automated account systems during a call. A voice recognition module of the vehicle appliance converts the voice command such as a numeric account number from the driver into appropriate key tones (such as, for example DTMF tones). (Each number button of a cell phone has a tone of a specific frequency corresponding thereto.) The Bluetooth™ communications module then wirelessly sends these key tones to the cell phone. The cell phone then “dials” the DTMF tones for receipt by the voice automated menu-driven system during the call.
A problem with this configuration is that oftentimes passwords and account numbers are long, confusing numeric sequences that the driver simply cannot memorize. The driver typically has many account numbers for credit cards, bank accounts, etc. which compounds this problem. As such, the ability of transferring account numbers for receipt by an automated menu-driven system during a call using voice commands is not an advantage as the account numbers are not readily known by the driver. That is, the driver will likely have to access a paper statement or the like to obtain an account number during the call which defeats the purpose of being able to transfer the account number using voice commands. It would be desirable if the driver could simply say a name associated with an account number such as “Visa”™ when the driver wants to transfer his Visa™ account number for receipt by a voice-automated menu-driven system during a call.